The Last Three Months
by VocallyWritten
Summary: J.T. reflects on the time he spent with Cat while they looked for Vincent.


J.T. couldn't pinpoint the moment he stopped disliking Catherine Chandler, but he could remember very clearly the moment he became her friend. They had never been friends when Vincent was around. He usually had been far too interested in getting out of his best friend's way when she showed up to really talk to her in anything but a dire emergency, and those were usually unpleasant experiences because Catherine had a certain fondness for yelling at him when she was stressed. When he found out Vincent was gone, he hadn't ever expected how much Catherine would lean on him until he was too used to it for it to matter.

She had come to him that night with a bloody Gabe in tow -though she had locked him in the back of her squad car-, and tears streaming down her cheeks and he knew. It wasn't just Vincent's absence or even the fact that a very human Gabe was there, it was the heartbreaking sobs coming out of Catherine's mouth. He listened patiently as she explained what had happened, breaking off every few words to take shuddering breaths, and he sat there for a while just feeling numb. His best friend had been taken, stolen from him by the very people J.T. had protected him from for a decade.

Somewhere during his Vincent induced shock, Catherine had burrowed into his shoulder, her hands bunching his shirt, sobbing so violently he was shaking too. Eventually, he moved his arms to hold her, awkwardly rocking back and forth in an attempt to be comforting. They stayed like that for nearly an hour before she calmed down.

"Thanks J.T." She said quietly, her voice hoarse from crying. "You know, for being here for me."

He looked up at her face, wet and red and puffy, and offered her a slight smile. "Happy to do it."

In that moment, Catherine became more than his best friend's girlfriend, she became his friend. After that, Catherine came to see him on a daily basis. It was always about finding Vincent, but along the way, they learned quite a bit about one another. Before they had become friends, J.T. had always respected Catherine. She was an intelligent, beautiful woman who was more than capable of kicking ass, and that warranted some points in his book.

Seeing her more than anyone else also provided him with some experience in dealing with her obsessive behavior. He noticed her exhaustion before Tess was able to see anything wrong with her, and he forced smoothies down her throat when she wouldn't eat.

Eventually, she started to come over for reasons other than Vincent, like when Sarah told him they needed time apart a month into their search. Apparently spending all your time looking for a man your girlfriend can know nothing about isn't very good for a relationship. He had only mentioned it in passing over the phone to her, but an hour after the call she showed up at hs door armed with Sci-Fi movies, beers, and Ben and Jerry's.

"I figured you wouldn't like any of Tess's go to break up movies, so I did my best with what I had." She said, holding up her DVDs.

He laughed when he saw her selection: Alien, Star Wars Episode IV, and the entire first season of Star Trek.

"Couldn't have thought of anything more original?" He grouched, waving her in. In the end, J.T. couldn't have said what they ended up watching because Cat gave him the "other fish in the sea" speech for pretty much the first half of it. After that, he gave up on trying to watch the movie altogether and the two of them talked. About everything. How awful Sarah was for doing this to him, what they would do if they ever found Vincent, why the Star Wars prequels were so terrible. He stopped calling her Catherine after that night. He adopted the far more friendly and familiar nickname, Cat, and if she noticed, she never said anything.

When Vincent came back, J.T. almost expected things between him and Cat to go back to the way they were, and that's when he realized he didn't want them to. He had come to value their friendship in a way he only ever had with Vincent. He supposed it was natural for him to want a friend, and it made a lot of sense that he had found one in the woman who already knew about the double life he lead taking care of Vincent. Now that Vincent was back, the entire basis of him and Cat's relationship was kind of moot. But he really didn't want it to be. They had spent three months chasing after leads on Vincent, going on smoothie runs, and eating fast food on stake outs. Okay, so the last one was mostly him, and he still needs to force a double cheese burger down that woman's throat, but he still didn't want to just throw all that away. Being Cat's friend was... nice andJ.T. really didn't want to let that go.

After all, nice was something he hadn't had in a while. Could anyone blame him for not wanting to give it up?

A/N: Okay, so this idea just wouldn't get out of my head. Cat and J.T. friendship figs aren't very common, but they definately got close over those three months, so I wanted to explore that. While the last bit was partly wishful thinking about how deep their friendship runs, I still hold out hope that the show will develop their relationship, and allow J.T. to actually have more than one friend.


End file.
